


A Long Night.

by silentassassin21



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, First Meetings, Fluff, Girls Kissing, Homophobic Language, I imagined the OFC to look like Naomi Scott, Period-Typical Homophobia, Promise, Set After Season 3, but it's not angsty, c'mon duffer brothers, just so much fluff, soft romance, stop being cowards and cast naomi as robin's gf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 09:43:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20562242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentassassin21/pseuds/silentassassin21
Summary: Robin was seriously regretting agreeing to take Steve's shifts one night at the video rental store. That is, until a cute girl walked in.





	A Long Night.

**Author's Note:**

> SHE LIVES. Yes I'm finally back, and weirdly with a Stranger Things fic. Full disclosure, I haven't watched a full ST episode after S01e04, but I have watched every scene with the Scoops Troop in season 3 and I fucking love Robin and thinks she deserves a cute girl to kiss. So I decided to be the change I wanted to see in the world. 
> 
> Sorry for any typos, grammatical errors, etc. I just wrote this in one sitting and published it so it's probably a mess. Hence why the title and description also suck.

It was hour five of dealing with idiots who wanted to rent movies, and Robin was about ready to scream or cry, maybe both, she wasn't 100% sure where her head space was at yet. Because she was a saint she had agreed to pull a double shift so that Steve could do something that was "super important" with Dustin, and with each minute that passed she was regretting her generosity. For one, she highly doubted that whatever the dingus had to do was actually that important, and for another, she had forgotten how fucking insufferable people renting movies were after 8:00. 

During the day it was fine, usually just being families renting the same thing for seventh time and old people who took approximately an hour to find what they were looking for but at least did so quietly. They might get the occasional teen or young adult, but they were generally by themselves which meant they were ten times less likely to cause trouble. But the second it was time for kids under the age of ten to be in bed all the other teens crawled out of the woodwork and decided it was the perfect time to be as obnoxious as possible while choosing a dumb action movie to watch. 

It was just Robin's luck that at 9:36 PM, on a night she wasn't even meant to be working, there was not one but _two_ groups of boisterous teens looking for something for their movie nights. One was a group of five white boys who were shouting at each other from across aisles, every third word being an expletive or slur as they spent most of their time going on about whether the chick on the cover had a nice rack or not. Gun to her head, they were definitely the group that Robin was finding the most frustrating. That didn't mean that the other group _wasn't_ frustrating, though. There were six of them, two girls and four boys from what she could tell, and they were off in two groups, one looking at action/thrillers and the others looking at comedies/romances. By the sounds of it the girls wanted something light and the boys wanted something full of blood, which obviously wasn't working out for them. The only saving grace is that they had some semblance of volume control and weren't making Robin's skin crawl by calling different actresses "dykes" every two minutes. 

Robin, stuck behind the counter, had started to just zone out while staring at a copy of _The Outsiders_ that was on display. Ordinarily she would try to make herself busy by organising the VHS', tidying up or reading, but after working five goddamn hours she had organised the VHS' three separate times, tidied up so much that the place was probably cleaner than it had been in months, and had finished the book she was reading. So it was either do absolutely nothing or read a manual for the phone, and she wasn't that desperate. 

"Excuse me!" The sharp voice shook her out of her boredom and she realised that three of the people from the second group were standing in front of her counter, the other three still casually browsing. VHS' of _Scarface_ and _Sixteen Candles_ sat on the counter so they had apparently come to a compromise. "We'd like to rent these," the person who had originally spoke added.

Robin forced a hopefully cheery-looking smile onto her face. "Of course," she said, sincerely wishing that it was the first group leaving as she took the boy's membership card. "If you bring them back before 9:00 AM tomorrow morning they're only a dollar."

"I know," the boy said in a way that he probably didn't think was very rude. Robin gritted her teeth as she put the two VHS' in a bag and handed it to him with a "Have a very nice day" that she hoped didn't sound too sarcastic. Judging by the scowl on another one of the boys' faces, she hadn't succeeded.

The second group left the store and Robin let the smile drop from her face, groaning quietly when she heard yet another stupid teenage boy shout loudly about how much of a dyke Julie Andrews was. 

Trying her best to ignore the group and not commit homicide, Robin pulled a pen out of her pocket and started doodling on her side of the counter, small enough that it could barely be seen from the front and would be easy to rub away with a bit of hot water. 

She spent nearly fifteen minutes absentmindedly drawing a flower, it doing its job of distracting her enough that the boys' loud talking became almost pleasant background noise. Unfortunately that also meant that she didn't hear anything else so when a much quieter voice said "That's cool" she smudged the entire flower with how much she flinched. 

"Fuck," she muttered, then nearly swore again when she remembered that she was at work and even late at night swearing was against company policy. 

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you" the voice said, and Robin finally looked up. She was pretty sure she stopped breathing for a while when she saw the face of the girl in front of her. She was smiling sheepishly at Robin, tucking some of her shoulder-length dark hair behind her ear. She had gorgeous brown skin and eyes that were a similar colour to her hair. Robin was so caught up in staring at her that she almost missed her adding, "That was a really nice drawing."

Robin's brain took a few seconds to start working again. "Uh, thanks, thank you, uh, very much," she said, stumbling over her words as she tried to get her bearings. 

"I don't think I've ever seen you here before," the girl continued. "Are you new here."

"Uh, kind of. Started working here about a month ago," Robin said, her words becoming less shaky as she planted both hands on the desk. "I don't normally work weekday nights, though, so that's probably why you haven't seen me before."

"Yeah, it's usually some guy with nice hair here, right?" Ah, yet another girl who just came to get rentals because they wanted to get a peak at Steve "The Hair" Harrington. Robin was honestly surprised she hadn't seen more disappointed girls walk out when they realised there was just some dorky girl working that night instead. 

"That's Steve. I'm just taking his shift tonight," Robin explained. "Do you still want to rent something or are you just here to stare at him? Promise I won't be offended if it's the latter."

The girl blushed - _holy fuck, that's cute_ \- and said, "No, I still want to rent something." She put a copy of _The Apartment _in front of Robin.

Without realising, Robin smiled and was saying, "That's one my favourite movies."

"Same here," the girl said, smiling back. "I think Steve's getting pretty sick of me renting it every week."

"If you're lucky, he might even take pity on you and just let him keep it," Robin said, taking the girls' membership card. _Hazel Singh_. Pretty name. 

"Don't give me hope," Hazel said, resting her elbows on the counter as she waited for Robin to scan her card. "Not gonna lie, I have considered just stealing it and skipping town a couple times."

"Is it really worth being on the run for a battered copy of _The Apartment_, though?" Robin said, aware she should probably be more concerned that a customer had just admitted to thinking about stealing a VHS, but when the person considering stealing it was that cute Robin found that she didn't mind. "I mean, you may as well find one in good condition if you're gonna go on the run either way."

"Good point," Hazel said, biting her lip slightly. "Guess I'll just have to come back and keep renting it from you until I find a better copy to steal."

She knew that "you" was probably meant as in the store as a whole, but Robin couldn't help the warmth that filled her at hearing the girl reference coming back. 

"Well, if you bring it back before 9:00 AM tomorrow then it only costs a dollar," Robin said, putting the VHS in a bag. She handed it to Hazel. "Enjoy rewatching one of the greatest movies ever made."

"I intend to," Hazel said, and then, honest to god, she _winked _at Robin before turning and leaving the store. 

Robin started screaming internally at herself to not get too excited, she probably wasn't even queer and the wink had probably just been one of those friendly, totally platonic winks that girls give each other. Definitely. Not gay at all. That was the straightest wink a girl had ever done. 

She was so caught up in thinking about Hazel that until she heard more shouting she had completely forgotten that the obnoxious group of boys were even there. Looking back at the clock as she tried to ignore the string of slurs they were shouting to each other, she brightened a little when she saw that it was nearly 10:00. She didn't get off work until midnight (fuck you Steve) but she at least got a twenty-minute break at 10:00. At that time she would finally have a good reason to throw out the boys she was pretty sure weren't even planning on renting anything. 

When the big hand of the clock did finally hit the 12, though, it took until it hit halfway between the 1 and 2 before she could actually get the boys to leave. Now in an empty store with a sign on the door stating her absence, she finally felt okay to scream for a few seconds before straightening herself and going into the back. With only thirteen minutes left of her break, she grabbed the half of a sandwich she had left and sat in the doorway between the back room and the counter area. 

With nothing to do but eat, she shut her eyes and lent her head against the doorway, eating as slowly as she could to savour each bite, knowing she wouldn't be able to eat another thing until getting home that night. There were two bites left when the timer she had set on the counter went off. A part of her wanted to cry in frustration as she scoffed the rest of the sandwich, standing up and dusting dust off her jeans. Too exhausted now to even scream, she just walked to the front door to take off the absence sign. 

There was somebody already waiting at the door and Robin's first instinct was to groan as loudly as humanly possible. But then she saw that it wasn't just some rando lurking; it was Hazel, smiling at her through the dirty glass. 

"Hey," Robin said as she opened the door, ripping off the absence sign. Hazel walked in, rental bag still in hand. "Do you wanna rent something else, because I've got some great suggestions for weird double features that involve _The Apartment._"

"No, I just realised I'd forgotten something," Hazel said, handing Robin a slip of paper. Robin took it from her and saw that it was a phone number. A phone number with a small heart drawn next to it. 

"Wh -" Robin wasn't even able to get the word out before Hazel's lips were gently pressed to hers. Robin was so stunned her brain didn't have time to catch up with what was happening, and then Hazel's lips were gone. 

"Really hoping I didn't read that wrong," Hazel said, her face somewhat flushed and a nervousness in her eyes. 

"N-no, you... you didn't read it wrong," Robin said, too shocked at the fact that she had just been kissing one of the cutest girls she had ever seen to speak properly. 

"Good," Hazel said, a smile on her face as she leaned in again. This time Robin was ready and she met the kiss, not doing much more than applying some pressure before Hazel pulled away again. "Call me and we can set up a time to do some more of that," Hazel said with a grin, slowly backing out of the store. "Or maybe I'll figure out your schedule and start renting _The Apartment_ at a different time."

"You would change the night you'd watch _The Apartment_ for... for me?" Robin asked, not quite believing what she was hearing. Not only did a cute girl want to kiss her, but she also wanted to specifically rent a movie from Robin?

"Obviously," Hazel said, throwing her another wink as she walked out. 

Robin stood in the middle of the store, still a little stunned but now more or less forming coherent thoughts. She smiled as she looked at the door, seeing Hazel walking to her car, rental bag in hand. 

"Steve Harrington, you fucking angel," she said quietly, staring down in awe at the heart beside the phone number. She carefully folded it and tucked it into her pocket, turning to go back behind the counter just as yet another group of rowdy teens came in. But this time Robin almost didn't care, because she could still feel the heat of the kiss on her lips, and that might just keep her going throughout the next two hours until she could go home and call the cute girl who had given her her number. 

**Author's Note:**

> Wow I suck at endings. Anyway, hope you liked this, please consider commenting or giving kudos if you did :)


End file.
